DC Comics, from my perspective has gone through 7 distinct eras, and I just wanted to express my preference and my reason why for anyone wondering. Some things I look for in fiction, including comics, not necessarily in order, just to start:
1: Idealistic, Optimistic Pro-Humanity Themes
2: Sense of Gravitas, Elegance and Dignity
3: Mysticism and Esotericism
4: A Sense of Legacy (as well as familial themes) and Continuity of Being
5: Being treated like an adult and not being spoken down too
So as to the ages themselves
7: The Dark Age (1986-1996)
The Dark Age had some really big important hits, specifically Vertigo Comics and things outside the main lines which were beautiful artistic pieces. The Sandman is legit my favorite comic series of all time (though that's not exactly a controversial claim).
The problem really was what was going on in the mainlines. 1993 is famously the year Superman died and Venom got his own comic series. The main comics were filled primarily with shock and gimmicks. Gimmicks would go on to infect later parts of the 90s as well but they were super big here imo.
6: The Silver Age (1956-1970)
I'm not a fan of the Silver Age. Cue Booing.
I just don't enjoy a lot of it. After the comics code everything had to be made more and more for children, and that's what it is, it's children's' stories, and not particularly engaging ones most of the time. I'm not saying they need sex and graphic violence to be good. I just put the Dark Age below the Silver Age. What I don't like about the Silver Age is actually pretty similar to the Dark Age is one way....the gimmicks. The gimmicks and the monotony that goes with it. I'll solve the problem with a new power or a new gadget and not with any cleverness.
The Silver Age is constantly characters stating the obvious like we have no brains, it's villains who are jokes in terms of motivation and threat level and cookie cutter heroes in terms of personalities. I don't get the appeal of "goofiness". To me the lack of gravitas means the lack of interest. I just don't like being treated like a child. I get really really annoyed when I think someone is talking down to me, treating me like an idiot.
Also this is a more personal note, but I generally prefer the fantastical to the science-fiction and The Silver Age tried to make everything more sci-fi and less fantastical.
Why did I put it ahead of the Dark Age? Well a lot of the concepts introduced the Silver Age are cool in theory, and would be put to better use in later eras, it's just I didn't like how they were applied here.
5: New 52 (2011-2016)
The New 52 had serious problems, that said I think the New 52 hate is very often exaggerated.
When it comes to the New 52 I hear a lot of times basically "I don't like this cause it's not what it was before" and I honestly don't get that complaint. It's different...ok? Is it good on it's own merits or what? Maybe it's because at the time it felt like losing the old one forever, which I can understand. Still looking back on it, that argument doesn't hold as much water.
Some of the big problems The New 52 DOES have is that it was DC basically trying to be Marvel. They tried to make their characters younger and more relatable, they tried to introduce a lot more moral complexity, they tried to focus their stories more on psychology. And really that was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Also lots of tie-ins and miniseries left over from the previous era's attitude.
So what do I like about? Well the mystical branch of DC had amazing storylines during that time. New 52 Wonder Woman's storyline was great as was Zatanna's with the Justice League Dark against Pralaya.
Geoff Johns took off here and the man, while he isn't perfect does pretty solid work consistently.
Also starting in 2013-2014 timeframe with the DCEU and Convergence, things got so much more optimistic and pro-human all of a sudden. Both of those really brought back the idealism that the New 52 didn't have and started incorporating it for Rebirth.
4: The Golden Age (1938-1956)
I have said I think the Silver is overrated. On the flip side of that, I think the Golden Age is seriously underrated. The stories were very simple back then, but before the comics code they actually really did treat their viewers like adults. The villains weren't complex but they weren't weird goofs or nonsensical space aliens. Most of the villains back them were criminals, mad scientists, and foreign military powers.
You know what I really like about the Golden Age, that none of the other eras really have. Logical consequences to metahumans. This is something I really want in comics and they just don't have. Example: There's a golden age Superman story where a guy dies in a car accident and Superman, angry at it, says if he sees anyone speeding (and he will see) he's gonna personally knock em into jail.
You know what happens next? Superman doesn't become a crazed dictator, a plot I only liked the execution of once, traffic accidents stop. The End. I get annoyed at how fiction seems to think adding powerful metahumans somehow won't change the world in a massive way.
Another example: Superman realizes the slums are dangerous places to live so he destroys the thing, knowing the government will have to rebuild it all nice and better. And this is a good thing because he dramatically improved the lives of everyone there.
That's how metahumans logically work, at least to my guess.
The Golden Age is where the characters were simultaneously the most human and the most archetypal. They weren't the jokes of the Silver Age, or the Philosopher-Demigods of the Bronze. They were just people trying to do the right thing.
3: Bronze Age (1970-1986)
The Bronze Age is an interesting beast. I like the maturity that the Bronze Age had, and I liked the more esoteric otherworldy elements that creeped back in.
The usage of mythology and gravitas such as the introduction of the New Gods to me is one of the most welcome additions to the DC Universe there ever was.
The relaxation of the Comic Code allowed for a wider variety of topics to be shown in Comics, even if they were rather simple depictions early on.
The Bronze Age for me is when a lot of things I liked about comics were allowed to start to seep back in from the repealing of the Comics Code.
2: Iron Age (1996-2011)
The Iron Age's biggest problem to me is it's tendency towards pretention.
Beyond that however, it's a very interesting age, that acts a sort of proto-Prismatic Age, trying to mix elements from all the previous ages into a working symbiosis.
The Iron did a lot of really cool things, especially in the middle to end part. The earlier part of it was a bit too dark age-y and yet somehow was also too anti dark age-y going too far in the opposite direction. This is why I didn't love Kingdom Come that much, it was so....idk, spiteful, towards the prior age. So much of it read like "Yeah those guys are terrible, we are the real cool".
The Iron Age though for the most part strayed away from that, having a lot more complexity and nuance to it, and also had characters develop into the roles that fiction always sees them as now. It reminds me a lot of the DCAU.
1: Prismatic Age (2016 and on)
The Prismatic Age reminds me of my favorite DC Products in general, The DCEU, the best parts of the DCAU, The Sandman, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tommorrow, All-Star Superman
sure it's not always as good as those best parts, but it is clearly trying for the same feel that those create in me. The sense of wonder at humanity's greatness, the quiet legacy and dignity of the DC Universe, the grandeur of the modern mythology.
The Prismatic Age to me is embodied in the words Barry says to Wally in the introduction to the era "How could I have ever forgotten you?". In that question we ask why we forgot the greatness of the past eras and re-strive to incorporate the best parts of all that come before us.
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